Day 37 — Little Egypt MT to Minot ND

July 19, 2021. This morning I got up at 3:15 and was on the road by 3:45. I spent the first 2.5 hours riding with a headlamp, which was okay because the climb out of the Missouri Valley was a grunt and I was glad to not be able to see the tops of the hills I had to climb.

I also passed through lots of the oil field infrastructure. You can see hundreds of oil wells, tanks, and methane flares as far as the eye can see. The bright yellow light is the flames of Methane flares.

All I could think about is how hot the sun was and why isn’t this investment going into solar energy instead of pulling more and more carbon out of the ground and spewing it into the atmosphere.

I made it to Stanley, about 45 miles from my camp, for breakfast at a convenience store, where I also stocked up on liquids and energy bars. Then it was 54 miles to Minot. But the road got increasingly flatter and my wheel speed picked up considerable. Overall the plan worked. While it was a hard ride, I made it to a hotel in Minot by about 1:00 pm. The air condition feels glorious!